story, and then I spent the next Seven years alone finishing it. Every morning, I sat for two hours and thought about him, gathering his story. Working with my dad and our family was a great honor and put me on a solid course my whole life. Our client list speaks volumes about the kind of people I have worked with in my career. Here is a short list: Crate and Barrel, Zara, New York Times, Hermes, Wolford, JM Family - S.E. Toyota, Her- shey’s Chocolate, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PBS, Time Magazine, National Geographic, The Kentucky Derby, The Chicago Art Institute, and MoMa. Building a business from the bottom up afforded me the Freedom to care for my family and com- munity while spending quality time making art and writing. I am very prolific as a creator. I love how making art is an exercise in discovery. 2007, I was recovering from an injury, so I had some extra time. For whatever reason, I drew a simple outline of a bug and filled it in with colorful patterns. I was encouraged to do more of them, so I did. By this time, I had been painting for almost 50 years. 2011, I started writing books. I found the exercise similar to making a large painting. My first book is called The Horse Adjutant. It highlights the story of a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, Leon Schagrin. He was a Jewish prisoner at the Auschwitz death camp in Birkenau, Poland. This book inspired the Polish town it was written about to explore its his- tory and embrace its Jewish past. Today, there are new monuments at the graveyard and giant murals depicting the families all over town. In 2021, Jim Boring, my long-time editor, wrote the foreword to my first book on Shoosty Bugs. I asked him how can I be the author of a Holocaust book and a book on bugs. He masterfully complied, equating my bugs to the scarabs of ancient Egypt. In 2024, Jim passed away. In 2022, acting as curator, Jennifer McInnes
Interview with Jenni Craig Please share your background as an artist and how your journey led to this exhibit. As a child, I was a stamp collector. Sorting and or- ganizing those small pictures naturally led to or- ganizing my art, eventually becoming The Catalog Raisonné of every painting and drawing I have ever made. Flipping through this set of books is like entering a time machine. It starts with the crayon drawings I made at age 7 in 1965 and currently goes to 2023, 65 years later. It is three volumes and 1,600 pages. I do not know of any other living artist who has created a comprehensive book of their art. It is a remarkable achievement and has become an invaluable resource that has proven instrumental in attracting the attention of key figures in the art world. I graduated from The University of Florida (1976- 82), earning a degree in Fine Art with a minor in Architecture. At the time, my dad, Herman Shoost- er, said you can’t be an artist for your career. Mi- chelangelo’s father said the same thing to his son. Instead, my dad asked me to defer my education and join his small business. He wanted the business to grow. I stayed with him. He owned a small tele- phone answering service. It had wooden switch- boards that we rented from the phone company. Then, in 1988, AT&T released 800 numbers to the world, and I decided to build a call center. I was young and unfazed by the scale of the effort. Artists like to make things, so I built it from scratch and learned all the nuances. I found myself deep in the heart of software for years. It led to a career of over 40 years, resulting in a team of 35 engineers work- ing directly for me, and our company grew from 10 employees to thousands. One of the best parts was that the whole family joined the business. We were four brothers and sisters, all our spouses and parents—a true family business. In 2012, my dad earned The Sun Sentinel Excalibur Businessman of the Year Award for Broward County, Florida. Four days later, he was diagnosed with Leukemia. We spent the next seven months together writing his
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